Socialism at the Horse Fair

Post Two:  Realism and the Early Avant-Garde

 

Marie-Camille de G. wanted art to depict social oppression in order to bring it to the attention of those in a position to do something about it.  The Horse Fair (1853-55) by Rosa Bonheur does show the lower class at work but in such a pretty, idealized way that Marie-Camille de G. might have been somewhat ambivalent about it.  She might have hoped that since the work was painted by a woman it could have gone farther to promote the cause of gender parity- but no- Rosa Bonheur found her place as a female artist (and therefore an outsider) using a traditional Academic style.   There are no figures identifiable as obviously female in the work.  Of course Marie-Camille had no real objection to the Academic style, she did, after all pick Martyrdom  of Saint Symphorian by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres as her favorite, or at least the least objectionable, painting of the Salon of 1834.  The work of Ingres shows how a human becomes a Saint by transcending suffering, oppression and death itself and Marie-Camille believed that the best subject matter came from a passionate, religious viewpoint.  Passion and emotion can move the viewer to action like no intellectual approach ever will.  The sheer size of the canvas and the beautiful subjects of The Horse Fair may create a sense of awe in the viewer but that is unlikely to bring about social change.

The Horse Fair is an idealized scene from a real event.  The horses are beautiful and the grooms and horse-handlers are handsome, strong men putting on a show for those with enough money to buy new horses for their farms, to pull their carriages and to ride to the hunt.  The painting reflects the horses as all are beautiful things up for sale.  Marie-Camille might have liked that men of the lower class are being shown as having control of the great power represented by the horses.   A slight change of subject matter such as including a couple of female figures in the painting as horse handlers or even spectators might have created more controversy than the artist wanted but could have made a feminist statement.

 Instead of actually changing the subject matter of the painting we might merely shift our viewpoint.   The men in the painting are being depicted in an idealized way but they might also be said to be living in a utopian world of the future.  In a socialistic utopia the horses likely would belong to a communal farm and be useful for the work that they do.  No individual would own these horses, as they belong to the collective.  The men circle the horses for a bit of training and exercise in the early spring before the busy seasons of plowing and harvesting and not to show them off as objects for sale.   Indeed, the artist who painted The Horse Fair, Rosa Bonheur, was raised by Saint-Simonian, radical utopian parents who subscribed to some of the same tenets as Marie-Camille de G.  They believed in equality of the sexes and in a female messiah who appears in the future.  Ms. Bonheur often dressed in men’s clothing to work since trousers restricted her movements among animals on farms and in stockyards much less than skirts.  Some say she painted herself dressed in her work outfit as one of the riders in the work.  Though there is no concrete reference to sexual equality- other than the gender of the artist- in this painting it is possible, with her background, that Rosa Bonheur is actually revealing a religious vision of some future socialist, utopian society.  She could be using Academic style and non-threatening subject matter as a cover to get this message seen by the masses.  Bonheur may have made a painting that meets with the approval of Marie-Camille de G. after all.